how to find Ham repeters when planing a trip

[troyboy162]

there are books out there to help you find repeter locations, but i find this to be the easiest so far. its still a bit of a pain, but this is a google overlay to show you pushpins for the general loction of most of the repeters out there. the pain is not all of them are listed and not all of them listed are active. If anyone has an easier method please share.
http://k5ehx.net/repeaters.kml

[corax]

This is my go-to repeater list: http://www.artscipub.com/repeaters/. The initial screen gives instructions on how to use it, but it's pretty simple. Click on a state in the map at top and an interactive google map with some, but not all, of the repeaters pops up. Below that is a list with all the repeaters. I find it easiest to leave the list ordered alphabetically by city and copy/paste what I want into an Excel sheet (I use Open Office Calc because it's free - highlight, copy, "Insert Sheet").

[4x4mike]

I found a few places online that have been really helpful. I have 2 books I've made. One is 8 1/2" X 11" and about 20 pages. The second is the same thing and about the size of a quarter sheet of paper. Each book has all the repeaters for CA, OR and NV. I have a database of more states but this is good enough for me right now. Each state has the frequencies from bottom to top and then the same ones organized by county. At the end I have a map with all the counties.
If and when I need to talk I look up the PL and offset, put it in and I'm set.

The small one is for use with my handheld and the larger one is in the map pocket. I'm traveling right now and have already busted it out twice to see where the repeater is located.

The lists were posted from a link on Expo and are Excel files so you can organize edit easily.

[troyboy162]

This is my go-to repeater list: http://www.artscipub.com/repeaters/. The initial screen gives instructions on how to use it, but it's pretty simple. Click on a state in the map at top and an interactive google map with some, but not all, of the repeaters pops up. Below that is a list with all the repeaters. I find it easiest to leave the list ordered alphabetically by city and copy/paste what I want into an Excel sheet (I use Open Office Calc because it's free and Insert Sheet).




hey thats a great link! thank you

[4x4mike]

The google ones I've found have a lot of inactive repeaters. The repeaters close to me, less than 50 miles, are low power and not all that active. The larger more powerful ones are close to 75 miles away and are much better because they have 4-6 voter sites that allow use in what seems like 150 mile radius.

[4x4mike]

This is my go-to repeater list: http://www.artscipub.com/repeaters/. The initial screen gives instructions on how to use it, but it's pretty simple. Click on a state in the map at top and an interactive google map with some, but not all, of the repeaters pops up. Below that is a list with all the repeaters. I find it easiest to leave the list ordered alphabetically by city and copy/paste what I want into an Excel sheet (I use Open Office Calc because it's free and Insert Sheet).




Yep this is the one I use from Expo. My excel sheet has 144 and 440 sorted (county and another by freq) and it's super handy. Excel also makes it easier to add and edit the list. Google the station name or sign to find out more about it. If it is linked or has voter sites I make a note of it as it'll keep me connected longer. I'm in the Northern CA valley but there are repeaters linked from the bay area to Tahoe and into Nevada as well as the Rubicon. With crossband repeat and the correct frequencies you can talk to the SF Bay area on a 5w HT from the Rubicon.

Like I mentioned before I've got one in the 4Runner and a reduced size to fit in my front pocket when mobile with the HT. Fun stuff.

[Matt2001TJ]

It's a good directory I use it as well. Win-System on 70 cm works great nationwide and the have a lot of linked up machines all over California.

[troyboy162]

winsystem is amazing. its pretty much the whole reason i had to buy duel band.
heres the coverage map for those that havnt seen it. this is the basics of the system. internet connections to anywhere in the world are common
http://www.winsystem.org/System_Info/coverage_map/body_coverage_map.html
notice socal is redundantly covered in most areas

[Unionjack]

If anyone has an easier method please share.

If you have a GPS and can upload custom points of interest try this: http://www.poi-factory.com/node/11561

[troyboy162]

thats pretty slick. Steve-o get your licence so you can load these up haha

[Seanz0rz]

Ok, over 2 years old, but I think it is worth a post.

www.repeaterbook.com, you can export their info for a number of devices, but more importantly, you can export as a .gpx file.

To do this, click the big map on the front page, then select your state. From there, select your band (2m, 70cm, etc) and then the list it generates can be exported as a .gpx file. Load it up in google earth and it gives you the location of each repeater.

This should help in the planning process. You can also load repeaterbook on your smart phone. It stores all the info on the device, so you don't need service to access it. It will give you the closest repeaters based on your location (if your device is location aware). Now, closest isn't always best, but it is a start.

[4x4mike]

I too use repeaterbook on the computer and my phone.

The repeater books I have now I've made from exporting the repeaterbook data. I send them to excel where I sort by frequency and then another tab by county. If you pre plan certain areas I suggest using the memory banks in your radio as it's easier to organize all the frequencies and not have similar ones over lap and or prohibit effective scanning which can be troublesome especially in an emergency.

You can have banks for different regions and include 2m and 70cm frequencies that work in each region. I've done this and include the Nation Simplex channel as well as a couple other 2m and 70cm simplex channels along with crossband frequencies in each bank so I'm not fiddling around too much.